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Oranjekoek: Photos by Tryntsje Nauta

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Overhead photos of Oranjekoek, a traditional cake from the Friesland province in the Netherlands. This sweet pastry has a long history and there are as many varieties of oranjekoeken as there are bakeries. Each bakery has their own way of decorating and true to tradition, these bakeries create something of a small work of art. Some of the decorations are the result of the baker’s own imagination, but often a bakery will follow a pattern handed down through generations of bakers, because that is what a proper oranjekoek is supposed to look like. Tryntsje Nauta visited ninety-three bakeries and photographed their oranjekoek using a minibus converted into a photography studio. The project took six months to complete.

When you look down on these little showpieces their aesthetics immediately catch attention. The baroque decorations create abstract patterns that even look almost oriental at times. Like a display of tiles, these decorated pastry pieces each have their own character; extravagant or modest, highly imaginative or conservative. In spite of its many guises, it will always be recognised as oranjekoek. It is an ornamental pastry featuring a play of contrasting surfaces, colours, composition and texture, that is determined according to each area and local culture.